Manoj Hariharan’s love of science began with a trek in fall, with his father, when his eyes captured the changing color of leaves in the midst of sheets of rain that turned paths into bewitching rivulets. Pursuing a doctorate nurtures this fascination scientifically. It also brings a deeper glimpse into all the good nature can do, from uncovering our survival to understanding Earth’s processes that shape our world.
At the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, Hariharan covers biosphere-atmosphere interactions and intends to understand how climate, pollution, atmospheric and geographic sciences shape and are shaped by the terrestrial carbon cycle. He tries to picture them mainly with the “eye in the sky.” He is a graduate of the Department of Geography at the University of Madras, Chennai, and a Project Fellow at the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun. He loves stargazing in his downtime.
As a Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellow, Hariharan anticipates spending time with climate models at a supercomputer cluster to understand the dynamic traits of carbon. He will focus on the sensibility of the terrestrial ecosystems to environmental change, by attributing the processes to observed changes in the carbon pools using an integrated data platform. He expects the outcomes to draw him closer to better quantifying the trajectory of terrestrial carbon pools. Besides, he plans to explore the starry nights of the Colorado mountain trails and eagerly awaits experiencing a snowy Christmas eve.